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Messari's protocol reports give you a deep dive on the foundation and state of top crypto protocols, including key metrics and notable events. See the complete list of protocol reports here and get a preview of our latest report below.
Decentralized indexing protocol that structures and serves blockchain data through customizable APIs called Subgraphs
Active Subgraphs reached a record 15,087 (+7.6% QoQ), showing strong developer engagement
Introduced Hypergraph, a local-first framework enabling user-owned, privacy-preserving apps with composable on/off-chain data
New Chain Integration Process (CIP) now ties rewards to real usage and active Subgraphs
NEAR’s market cap rose 24% QoQ to $3.3B, supported by a 533% surge in DEX volume and a 28% jump in stablecoin market cap
Intents framework evolved into a multichain coordination layer handling 2.3M swaps ($234.9M volume)
This enabled AI agents and users to perform autonomous, cross-chain transactions
Upgraded from 8 to 9 shards, boosting throughput by 12.5% and expanding validators to 500, improved state sync, data recovery, and performance
Solana’s DeFi TVL increased 32.7% QoQ to $11.5 billion
The Application Revenue Capture Ratio (Chain GDP divided by Real Economic Value) grew from 222.8% to 262.8%
Stablecoin market cap on Solana grew 36.5% QoQ to an all-time high of $14.1 billion
SOL finished Q3 2025 with a market cap of $113.5 billion, a 37% QoQ increase
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Multiple new DeFi apps have skyrocketed to billions in TVL this cycle. To name a couple, Pendle sits above $6.2B TVL, Fluid around $2.2B, and Euler at $1.1B. Yet none have captured mainstream attention quite like Polymarket. It has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and CNN.
Despite the visibility, Polymarket’s TVL has never surpassed $1B, peaking near $512M after the 2024 election, and sitting around $216M today. Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated, non-crypto competitor has also fallen from its ~$431M OI peak to ~$272M. Both have seen steady growth post-election, but the question remains: why haven’t they seen the same parabolic rise as other DeFi protocols?
Two structural reasons stand out. First, when bets expire, capital naturally exits the platform unless users re-bet in new markets. After the 2024 election, there was a sharp drop in TVL as participants did just this, withdraw. However, the current gradual growth suggests that consistent introductions of new, relevant markets can keep speculators engaged and willing to keep capital on the platform, dismissing this reason.
The second reason is liquidity. For institutional actors, prediction markets are simply not liquid enough to serve as effective hedging venues. On Polymarket, for example, a $300K bet on the Chiefs winning the Superbowl (its most liquid market) moves the price nearly 30%. By contrast, Pendle has five markets with over $70M in liquidity, and a $300K trade shifts the implied APY less than 1% on its most liquid market. Market makers hesitate to provide deep liquidity because prediction markets introduce significant jump risk: price gaps that can wipe them out when markets resolve suddenly.
To counter this, Polymarket and Kalshi give out liquidity incentives, paying users to rest limit orders near current prices. Polymarket alone gave out $445K last month. However, prediction markets need materially higher incentives to add and retain liquidity than other DeFi protocols. Using incentives to subsidize jump risk is not scalable or sustainable.
One potential solution could be to explore different transaction ordering mechanisms, like Hyperliquid’s cancel-priority model. HIP-4 is an idea to extend permissionless builder-deployed perpetual markets (HIP-3) to binary prediction markets. With cancel-priority, market makers could safely deepen liquidity under normal conditions while pulling quotes quickly when jumps happen. If HIP-4 happens, it could be the next step toward scaling prediction markets.
